Food & Drink

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• Best Sushi Restaurant

  Shiro's Sushi

  It seems that nowadays, the title “sushi chef” is bestowed upon anybody who can cobble together a California Roll at the QFC sushi bar. Thus, “sushi rock star” better describes Shiro Kashiba, the mastermind behind Shiro’s Sushi Restaurant in Belltown. Profiled at length in The New York Times and USA Today, the Kyoto-born, Tokyo-trained chef has, since the moment he… More >>

• Best Eastern European Market

  Balkan Market LTD.

  Blink and you'll miss Balkan Market LTD., a small Burien business beloved by Eastern European transplants. It specializes in selling imported items from countries like Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia; offerings of ajvar (roasted pepper spread), cevapi (minced meat), and kajmak (a popular cheese condiment) are seen as godsends by many of the market's shoppers, who live far away from home… More >>

• Best Dim Sum

  Jade Garden

  A hungry chap ambling through the International District can walk into Jade Garden be seated at a table, and have five different piping-hot Cantonese delicacies plopped in front of him, all in under three minutes. But it’s not the lightning-fast service that earns Jade Garden the win for best dim sum in town—it’s the attention to detail and the bang… More >>

• Best BBQ

  Smokin' Pete's BBQ

  Simple geography puts the Pacific Northwest about as far from the birthplace of American barbecue as one can get (and not be in Alaska). That, however, doesn't mean that one can't find plenty of rib-sticking 'cue joints to belly up to. The best among them is a place in Ballard called Smokin' Pete's BBQ. And while lesser barbecue restaurants fall… More >>

• Best Coffeehouse

  Lighthouse Roasters

  Walking into Lighthouse Roasters in upper Fremont is like stepping into a friend’s ramshackle kitchen and being brewed a pot of stunningly fresh gourmet coffee. Known for its addictive taste (editor Mike Seely once called it the world’s best cocaine substitute), Lighthouse’s coffee is made even better because it’s sold by owner Ed Leebrick, who lives right next door and… More >>

• Best Mexican Restaurant

  Senor Moose

  For the vast majority of Americans, "Mexican food" means a bowl of tortilla chips with salsa, some sort of meat wrapped in a cheese-slathered tortilla, and a soggy serving of refried beans and yellow rice. At first blush, a restaurant with a goofy, gringo-friendly name like Senor Moose might seem to offer this sort of insipid faux-Mex fare. In truth,… More >>

• Best Grocery You Didn't Know Was a Grocery

  Cost Plus World Market

  It's not all wicker patio furniture, remaindered housewares, and framed posters of wine bottles at Belltown's Cost Plus World Market. Taking up a sizable corner of the place are several aisles of actual wine bottles, plus a circum-global selection of stuff you likely won't find elsewhere: jarred bockwurst, Portuguese sardines, seaweed rice crackers, rhubarb-and-ginger preserve, ready-to-eat packets of palak paneer,… More >>

• Best Place to Get Fatter

  Red Mill Burgers

  Bales of bacon. That’s the sight and smell that stays with you after a visit to either of Seattle’s two Red Mill locations, in Interbay and Phinney Ridge. So many sandwiches come topped with bacon that the kitchen fries the stuff by the basketful. And there it sits on a counter, visible from the line leading to the register, glistening… More >>

• Best Chocolate

  Dilettante's

  Fran's has its fans, and Theo Chocolate is as fair-trade-y and community-service-y as anyone could ask for, but Dilettante's always owned my loyalty. Call me conservative, but you can leave the cayenne pepper and the bacon out of my chocolate, please; Dilettante's traditional recipes and methods go back a century, and their cafes provide that Mitteleuropa-style, nurse-a-slice-of-torte-for-an-hour atmosphere better than… More >>

• Best Raw Restaurant

  Chaco Canyon

  Infused with the perfect balance of healthiness and palatable goodness, Chaco Canyon bursts with potential. In a world of processed foods and hormone-crazy dairy products, Chaco Canyon skips straight to organic and raw delights. On the menu are sandwiches, soups, grain bowls, salads, and smoothies without sugary fillers and dubious supplements. They also have raw entrées like an enchilada plate,… More >>

• Best Tapas/Small Plates

  Ocho

  In Spain, the main meal of the day is a late lunch typically served around 2 or 3 p.m. and followed by a siesta. Clearly, it’s a country that has its priorities straight. With that in mind, Americans would be wise to treat tapas as they do in España. Order a dozen different dishes and gorge yourself on a smorgasbord-style… More >>

• Best Smoothie

  Juicy Cafe

  In the world of smoothies, Juicy Café reigns supreme. The cafe, on the second floor of the Washington State Convention Center, has a smorgasbord of fruit and veggie elixirs to choose from. Traditionalists can order Kaila’s Sizzle (berries + banana + apple + mango + protein), while the more adventurous can indulge in Cure My Hangover Now (carrot + apple… More >>

• Best Taco Truck

  El Camion

  The El Camion in the Home Depot parking lot on Aurora is perhaps the only place in Seattle where immigrant day laborers dine alongside white-collar office workers, which is amazing considering how much both groups of workers appreciate a cheap, efficient, and satisfying lunch. While there are plenty of other solid options on the menu, tacos are what keep the… More >>

• Best Wine Store

  Grocery Outlet

  Avert your eyes, oenophiles: The best wine store in Seattle isn't one store, it's a chain, and one that doesn't specialize in wine. In fact, if you were to claim that the six Seattle-area Grocery Outlets specialized in anything, it'd probably be dented boxes of Triscuits. But don't let any snobbish tendencies blind you from the truth: Grocery Outlet not… More >>

• Best Diner

  Meander's

  An 8-month-old diner in West Seattle's Morgan Junction, Meander's has swiftly gained such a devout following through word-of-mouth that it hasn't bothered to replace the sign of the prior tenant, a Chinese restaurant called Jade West. Meander's, which seats 13, features one four-top and nine counter stools, where all eyes are fixed on owner-chef Miranda Krone, who (wo)mans the grill… More >>

• Best Restaurant When Someone Else Pays

  Palace Kitchen

  You can’t write about the “best” anything without having experienced it yourself. So while there most certainly are many Seattle restaurants more expensive than Tom Douglas’ Palace Kitchen, his new American creation is the one that provided, for me, the most sublime combination of good food and relief at not having to cover the bill. I can’t remember all that… More >>

• Best Pizza (Thick)

  Northlake Tavern

  Seattle is in the midst of a serious proliferation of pizza parlors. And yet amid that proliferation, nothing has emerged in the way of what one would call “Seattle-style pizza.” So instead, let’s celebrate the most unique pizza in town: that of Northlake Tavern. With checkered tablecloths and David Horsey cartoons covering the walls, the Northlake is as Old Seattle… More >>

• Best Indian Restaurant

  Cedars Restaurant

  The best Indian place in town isn’t the flashiest—or the most-hyped, by any means. It’s found in the humble attic of a little brown building with white trim, tucked between 47th and 50th Streets in the U District. Cedars Restaurant has become well-known for its one-of-a-kind butter chicken, mango curry, and garlic naan (just one of 14 naans the restaurant… More >>

• Best Burgers (Non-Beef)

  Zippy's Giant Burgers

  There's really nothing to say about Zippy's Giant Burgers that hasn't already been said, other than "Damn, that's one fine beefless burger!" After winning countless awards for Seattle's best veggie burger, Zippy's continues to delight vegetarians and carnivores alike with its incredible black-bean bun-betweener. The patty, made from scratch from a family recipe, is crispy, chewy, and complemented perfectly by… More >>

• Best Fried Chicken

  Ezell's Famous Chicken

  Long before Oprah Winfrey declared Ezell’s Famous Chicken to be “the best chicken I've ever had in my life,” this Southern-cooking oasis has been a battered-and-fried Seattle institution. Ezell’s portions are huge, the meat tender, and the batter (spicy or classic) crispy and packed with flavor. Every order comes with a fluffy buttermilk biscuit, and, if you’re lucky, the cooks… More >>

• Best Vegetarian Restaurant

  Carmelita

  When it opened in 1996, Carmelita was only Seattle’s second option for vegetarian fine dining. Yet 15 years and a whole host of competitors later, it’s still the city’s best. Both a neighborhood standard and a veg-foodie destination, Carmelita welcomes all with its rich tapestry of sights, smells, and tastes. While catering exclusively to vegetarians and vegans, it has always… More >>

• Best Lunch Counter

  Bakeman's Restaurant

  James Wang would really like you to try his pie. He knows that you probably just stopped in to his store, Bakeman’s Restaurant near Pioneer Square, for one of his signature meatloaf sandwiches, or maybe fresh-roasted turkey with cranberry sauce on wheat. But by the time you get to the cash register with your food (a trip that averages about… More >>

• Best Greek Restaurant

  Plaka Estiatorio

  Grab-and-go gyro shacks overrun this city, but for truly great Greek cuisine, one must visit Plaka Estiatorio. “Friends and family gather here,” reads the sign inside the cute and cozy family-run restaurant, with exposed brick walls decorated with framed black-and-white family photos and each table set with fresh flowers. Plaka Estiatorio feeds its customers as if they were their own… More >>

• Best Vietnamese Restaurant

  Tamarind Tree

  When Tam Nguyen first brought Tamarind Tree to the heart of Seattle’s Little Saigon, it turned the city’s Vietnamese dining scene on its head. Here was what looked like a Manhattan cocktail lounge, with gourmet fare that broke new ground and invigorated old taste buds, and yet the menu—at $10 to $25 a plate—meant it was affordable enough for the… More >>

• Best Asian Market

  Uwajimaya

  Craving shrimp-flavored potato chips? Check the snack aisle. Looking for live lobsters? Select from the tank. Planning a party? Order a whole suckling pig at the deli. When it comes to Asian cuisine, Uwajimaya has Seattleites covered. One of the largest Asian grocery retailers in the Pacific Northwest, this family-owned chain provides a seemingly impossible selection of goods from countries… More >>

• Best Breakfast Dish

  The Dish

  Of all the meals one can order in a restaurant, the breakfast decision is easily the most heart-wrenching. Do you go salty and cheesy with an omelet or a scramble? Classic with eggs and bacon? Sweet with a Belgian waffle or French toast? It’s excruciating. So if just ordering breakfast is that difficult, picking the best breakfast joint in Seattle… More >>

• Best Chicken Wings

  Wingdome

  Having a hot girl serve you hot wings is awesome. But ultimately, it’s the latter that has to deliver—which is why Wingdome outdoes its more physically attractive competition. The number of options on their wing-centric menu borders on obsessive, with specialty sauces like Jamaican Jerk, Thai Sweet Chile, and Triple Garlic—and, of course, the biggest draw: hot wings, available in… More >>

• Best Burger

  Uneeda Burger's Classic

  There are deluxe steakhouse burgers, with pound-heavy patties and untraditional toppings like alfalfa sprouts or foie gras, and then there are the simple, old-fashioned burgers that bring you back to your childhood, sitting at a picnic table while Dad stands in front of the grill. Uneeda Burger's Classic falls squarely into the latter category, with its quarter-pound of medium-rare beef,… More >>

• Best Farmer's Market

  Ballard Farmer's Market

  Nearly every Seattle neighborhood has its own farmers market. Some are crushed into parking lots, some burst with antiques, and some are open on weekdays, offering a midday respite from the office. But for home cooks and locavores, the year-round Ballard market reigns supreme, thanks to its dedicated focus on produce. Open every Sunday on old Ballard Avenue no matter… More >>

• Best Restaurant Decor

  El Camino

  By turns romantic date venue and convivial cantina, El Camino’s flavors extend beyond the Rick Bayless-worthy menu into the restaurant’s decor. The maize-colored walls, Mexican tarot cards, and sparkling star lamps pulse with the warmth of el sol. Sure, you’ll find the usual fruity/floral oilcloths and Guadalajara vacation posters. But instead of Frida Kahlo and her monkey, images like the… More >>

• Best Restaurant Trend

  Naming the Source

  You wouldn’t just order a bottle of “red” wine, so why just order a “beef” burger? Sources matter, so it’s a positive development that several Seattle restaurants have begun naming their source—i.e., including farm or supplier names alongside menu items. For example, Lecosho’s Carlton Farms Pork Chop, Uneeda Burger’s Whidbey Island Crescent Harbor 100% Wagyu Kobe Grass-Fed Beef (a mouthful… More >>

• Best Breakfast with a Hangover

  Vera's Restaurant

  Remember the diner scene in Pulp Fiction, where Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta talk miracles and pork products in the middle of an armed robbery? Vera’s feels like that diner, minus the gunplay. Like a Tarantino film, Ballard’s best greasy spoon has a timeless quality, an ambience amplified by dim lighting, yellowed wallpaper, and waitresses who call you “Hon”… More >>

• Best Hot Dog

  Al's Gourmet Sausage

  The onion drizzle is what sets Al’s Gourmet apart from its competitors on SoDo’s hot-dog row. Al’s—a bright yellow tent and food truck, located a few paces apart on Occidental Avenue South—keeps a stainless-steel tub filled with onions simmering in their own juicy deliciousness on the grill. Each time a customer orders a sausage with complimentary onions, the cook dips… More >>

• Best Thai Restaurant

  Noodle Boat

  Is it worth traveling all the way to Issaquah to experience “Seattle’s” best Thai restaurant? Well, consider that members of the family-run Noodle Boat go all the way to Thailand each year to research new dishes and make chile paste to ship back to Seattle. The restaurant doesn’t dumb down its spice levels, and ingredients are fresh, as evidenced in… More >>

• Best French Fries

  Pike Street Fish Fry

  Come closing time, especially on weekends, Pike Street Fish Fry is full of people eager to get their drunken paws on catfish sandwiches and battered halibut. But the French fries are just as good as—if not better than—the seafood, and are just as tasty at lunch when you’re (presumably) completely sober. The potatoes are soaked, sliced, and blanched by hand,… More >>

• Best Mexican Market

  Plaza Latina

  ¿Como se dice “one-stop shop” en Español? The answer, at least for Latinos who reside in the northwestern reaches of Seattle, is Plaza Latina. Surrounded by car dealerships in a Shoreline strip mall on Aurora, Plaza Latina is a combination restaurant, grocery store, and peluqueria (hair salon, to gringos). The restaurant features a menu del día with traditional Mexican soups… More >>

• Best Roast Chicken

  QFC - CLOSED

  $5.99 is one of the more popular price points in quick-food history. There's the large pepperoni or cheese pizza at Little Caesars; the milkshake, curly fries, drink, roast beef sammy, and another milkshake at Arby's; and, available at the QFC nearest you, the whole roast chicken that in the quick-food pantheon is a wing above the rest. It's not just… More >>

• Best Guacamole

  Milagro Cantina

  Even when it’s bad, guacamole, much like pizza and sex, is still pretty damn good. But the guacamole served at Milagro Cantina is really good. Here you can select from three variations so buttery they practically melt in your mouth: guacamole de mango with mango and pine nuts, guacamole de granada with pomegranate seeds and almonds, and a “simple” house… More >>

• Best Taqueria

  Malena's Taco Shop

  Malena's Taco Shop does tacos a bit differently than the typical Mexican joint, as each one is like a miniature salad atop a corn tortilla. The shrimp taco features a delicious mess of cabbage, diced tomatoes, onions, and cilantro. The pork and beef versions have hearty portions of moist carnitas-style braised swine or gloriously greasy asada, garnished with thick dollops… More >>

• Best Middle Eastern Restaurant

  Mawadda Cafe

  There's garlic, garlic everywhere at the homey Mawadda Cafe in Rainier Valley, which boasts that it serves Seattle's best falafel. It has the chickpeas to back up its claim, but, if dietary restrictions allow, migrate to the meat side of the menu for phenomenally tender gyro meat and beautifully spiced chicken shwarma, both of which pair nicely with Mawadda's zesty… More >>

• Best Cupcakes

  Cupcake Royale

  My grandpa is 90, impossibly healthy, and doesn’t do a lot of baking. On a recent visit, I brought him a half-dozen of Cupcake Royale’s finest, with the intention of sharing a few and taking the rest to a cousin. Grandpa picked his poison—Triple Threat, I believe, which is all chocolate, all the time—and finished it in short order. He… More >>

• Best Salad

  Purple Cafe and Wine Bar

  Courtney Cox and Jennifer Aniston reportedly ate the same salad for lunch every day for 10 years while filming Friends. It sounds boring, but it's surely plausible if it tasted anything like the Purple Chopped Salad at Purple Cafe and Wine Bar. Granted, the restaurant is recognized more for its impressive wine selection than its food, but its chopped salad… More >>

• Best Seafood Restaurant

  Sea Garden

  To a Nebraskan, every eatery in Seattle would probably qualify as a seafood restaurant, but Sea Garden sets the standard for the category. The International District destination draws on Asian-Pacific and maritime traditions for dishes including geoduck in black-bean sauce, ginger oysters, and salt-and-pepper crab, plucked from the display case and presented for approval before steaming. HANNA RASKIN 509 Seventh… More >>

• Best Restaurant to Die in the Past Year

  Watertown - CLOSED

  It's my fault that Watertown closed. When I first moved to First Hill, I was ecstatic to learn that there was a nearby coffee shop/bar that served caffeine and booze all day and all night. For a while it was great. Then things changed. Part of Watertown became 21-plus; you could no longer get whiskey in the a.m.; and eventually… More >>

• Best Italian Restaurant (Cheap)

  Ristorante Machiavelli

  Ristorante Machiavelli has hung onto its cheap classification by serving reasonable portions of pasta, instead of the towering noodle mounds that most red-checkered-tablecloth joints offer. There’s nothing bargain-bin about the flavors at this Capitol Hill mainstay, however, as the lasagna, chicken parmesan, and spaghetti taste just as they should. HANNA RASKIN 1215 Pine St., 621-7941, machiavellis.com… More >>

• Best Wine List in a Restaurant (Value)

  Elemental Next Door - CLOSED

  Elemental Next Door, Elemental’s casual offshoot, has shelves instead of a list; guests are invited to choose their bottle from a selection of dozens of interesting wines from Europe and the Pacific Northwest. Whether it’s a Washington primitivo or French rosé, the price is always the same: $30 for a bottle, $15 for a half-bottle. There’s food too, but—as the… More >>

• Best Meat Counter

  Capitol Hill Safeway

  Though many customers don’t realize it, butchers at most large grocery stores will custom-cut your meat. That’s good to know, because the three-quarter-inch steaks that are wrapped for easy picking just aren’t thick enough to get a deep sear on the outside and stay crimson through the middle. For that you’ll need an inch and a half, maybe two, which… More >>

• Best Italian Restaurant (Not Cheap)

  Spinasse's

  Pasta is pasta, right? Wrong. Spinasse's egg noodles are light, fluffy, delicate, and made perfect with a touch of butter and sage. The pasta alone is worth a trip to this pricey, recently expanded Italian eatery on Capitol Hill. But the rest of the menu lives up to the standard set by those glorious noodles. Savory flan, meats, and other… More >>

• Best Wine List in a Restaurant, Price Be Damned

  Canlis

  Here’s what most people know about wine: It’s yummy. Here’s another thing most people know about wine: It’s expensive. But I bet you didn’t know this: Canlis has a bottle on its wine list that will cost you more than a new 2011 Volkswagen Jetta. Put that in your glass and swish it! Sure, being glib is a great way… More >>

• Best Doughnut

  Top Pot's glazed old fashioned.

  Duh. CHRIS KORNELIS 2124 Fifth Ave., 728-1966, toppotdoughnuts.com… More >>

• Best Fresh Seafood Counter

  Uwajimaya

  At the veritable aquarium of Pacific Northwest sea life that functions as the seafood counter at Uwajimaya in the International District, the tanks are swimming with clams, crab, and a vast array of oysters, sold at startlingly fair prices. The section is so impressive that food tourists train their video cameras on display cases stocked with filets of wild-caught salmon,… More >>

• Best Delicatessen

  Cascade Specialty Market

  Dozens of Microsofties and Amazonians have recently arrived in new office cubicles in South Lake Union, and a restaurant scene, anchored by Tom Douglas, has sprung up to serve them. But the workingman’s gold standard is Cascade Specialty Market. Piled high with your choice of meats, cheeses, and toppings, Cascade’s sandwiches are grilled to crunchy perfection. Add a decent selection… More >>

• Best Coffee

  Good Coffee Company

  The proprietors of the Good Coffee Company—located next to downtown’s Owl N’ Thistle, almost directly below the Starbucks on First and Marion—ought to put up a sandwich board that reads “The Good Coffee Company, right below the bad coffee company.” Owner Joseph Kittay and, more recently, his music-obsessed son, Carl, have been roasting beans in the neighborhood since 1971, and… More >>

• Best Spring Rolls

  Green Leaf

  The popularity of Green Leaf might have something to do with the Vietnamese restaurant’s taut shrimp-and-pork spring roll, served with a tuft of emerald-green lettuce sprouting from one end. But the kicker is what the menu calls “crispy stick,” a cigarette-sized cylinder of fried dough that lends a satisfying crunch to the twist of vermicelli noodles and herbs. HANNA RASKIN… More >>

• Best Martini

  The Hunt Club

  It’s rarely comforting to find the TV set in a bar tuned to FOX News, unless perhaps you’re in the mood for a martini. The Hunt Club makes an admirably austere version of Richard Nixon’s favorite drink, adding the appropriate amount of vermouth to gin and garnishing it with a single olive. HANNA RASKIN 900 Madison St., 343-6156, hotelsorrento.com/food-drink… More >>

• Best Place to Eat Alone

  Senor Moose

  You want good food; you just don't want to be seen eating it. That's the conundrum faced by the solo diner, and the problem solved by Senor Moose Cafe. Ballard's best comida tipica (real Mexican food) can be had in its un-chic dining room, the back bar (El Milagro), or, for those without a dance partner, on a stool facing… More >>

• Best Chain Restaurant

  Red Robin on Alaskan Way

  If you're the kind of person who won't admit that Applebee's serves great drinks and killer riblets (they popularized them), you're not going to be able to stomach the thought that Red Robin on Alaskan Way is not just the city's best chain restaurant, but one of the better places to get a burger in town. There's no pretension, no… More >>

• Best Thin-Crust Pizza

  Via Tribunali

  Not every pizza chain with a respectable provenance makes good on its promise of imported Neapolitan pizza ovens and Italian-born cooks. But the crackly-crusted pies at Via Tribunali, painted with a wonderfully tangy tomato sauce and finished with blistering cheese, make a strong case for authenticity. HANNA RASKIN Multiple locations, viatribunali.net… More >>

• Best Beer Selection in a Restaurant

  Brouwer's Cafe

  It's a good sign when a restaurant has a separate, full-page menu of its beer offerings. At Brouwer's Cafe in Fremont, the extensive selection of domestics and imports includes 60-plus beers on tap, plus cask beer, kegs on nitro, and hundreds of choices by the bottle. They have dozens of styles of glassware to match the various styles of beer,… More >>

• Best Bread

  Food Bank at St. Mary's

  Since the 1940s, the Food Bank at St. Mary's has been providing groceries in the Central District to anyone who turns out. Today, it provides weekly necessities to any Seattle resident, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. There's no income restriction, as they get gobs of donations from local bakers. But people of means should consider… More >>

• Best Beer

  Manny's by the growler

  Fistfights break out over the topic, but truth is the best beer in Seattle is Manny’s by the growler, straight from the source at the Georgetown Brewing Company. At $6, it’s also the best deal. Manny’s hits that sweet spot at the intersection of drinkability, reliability, and taste that takes the long view. There are plenty of suds you can… More >>

• Best Service in a Restaurant

  Canlis

  My sense of weather was so skewed by a year spent in Texas that I didn’t pack a coat when I drove to Seattle. I realized my mistake in Montana, where I bought a boy’s fleece jacket at a Walmart for $1. That’s the coat I wore to my first meal at Canlis, the legendary citadel of civilized service. I… More >>

• Best Soul Food

  Geri's Casual Dining & Catering

  Geri is from Alabama and her Southern roots are smeared all over the menu of her laid-back Renton eatery, Geri's Casual Dining & Catering. Down-home fare runs deep, with collard greens and chopped cabbage braised until they're soft and buttery, thick oxtail stew, catfish, and fried okra—dishes that are low on the glam factor, but cooked with love (and typically… More >>

• Best Cheese Counter

  The Calf and Kid

  What matters most at The Calf and Kid, the dairy corner of the always-stimulating Melrose Market, is not so much what’s in the cheese case, but the woman standing behind it. Sheri LaVigne is a wonderfully knowledgeable cheesemonger who cares deeply about regional cheese makers, their products, and her customers. Whether you’re seeking stink and ooze or subtlety and elegance,… More >>

• Best Local Chef

  Matt Dillon

  Matt Dillon’s name rarely appears without the word “local” in close proximity. The chef, whose tattoos include a rendition of Washington state, wrings elegance from homegrown ingredients. As diners at Sitka & Spruce and The Corson Building have discovered, his treatments of foraged mushrooms, nettles, and fiddlehead ferns evoke a powerful—and delicious—sense of Seattle right now. HANNA RASKIN sitkaandspruce.com; thecorsonbuilding.com… More >>

• Best New Restaurant

  Revel

  Few restaurants this year have inspired as much food chatter as Revel, Fremont’s glossy street-food venture from Joule’s Rachel Yang and Seif Chirchi. The excitement is well-warranted: Revel’s rice and noodle bowls, abounding with Korean seasoning, are wonderfully compelling, and the pancakes are the perfect canvas for the restaurant’s smart set of bold sauces. HANNA RASKIN 403 N. 36th St.,… More >>

• Best Dining Destination

  Cafe Juanita

  Let’s just imagine for a minute that all those condos and strip malls weren’t there and Lake Washington was called Lago di Como. Cafe Juanita, chef Holly Smith’s slice of culinary paradise, would be right at home in the Italian countryside. Even when you check back in with reality, it’s easy to forget you’re in suburbia while sipping an aperitif… More >>

• Best Place to Dine With Your Grandpa

  Ray's Boathouse

  Gramps is going to love Ray’s Boathouse. He’ll probably talk your ear off about how he used to come to Shilshole “back in the day” before the original Ray’s burned down in ’87. (Isn’t it cute how Grandpa can recall the dates of disasters, but he never manages to remember your birthday?) The rebuilt Ray’s, which opened more than 20… More >>

• Best Sandwiches

  Where Ya At Matt?

  Matt Lewis' sandwiches--served from his roving food truck, Where Ya At Matt--bring a taste of the South to the Seattle sandwich scene. Po'boys overflow with lightly breaded seafood (catfish, oysters, or shrimp) that's fried crisp and nestled inside lightly toasted buns dressed with mayo, pickles, chopped lettuce, and tomatoes. The Peacemaker combines those fried oysters with bacon, pickled hot peppers,… More >>

• Best Grocery Store

  Pete's

  If Pete’s was merely a grocery store, with beer the only alcohol offered, it would still be special. For more than 40 years, it’s been a fixture on the east shore of Lake Union, catering to the needs of a lively neighborhood that spills downhill from I-5 west to the lake’s banks and the houseboat colony beyond. Pete’s features a… More >>

• Best Spot for Ladies Who Lunch

  The Georgian

  Here’s to the ladies who lunch/Aren’t they the best?/Heading to The Georgian for Saturday brunch/“Smart casual”-dressed/A list of flavored lemonades/Wasabi chicken salad/The tasteful background serenades/Another guitar ballad/I’ll drink to that. Here’s to the ladies at tea/Making dates by phone/Meeting at the Fairmont each Sunday at 3/For a housemade scone/Another leisure afternoon/A pot of jasmine brewing/Another chocolate macaroon/Discreetly muffled chewing/Does anybody… More >>

• Best Brunch

  Hudson

  Hudson is a slightly gentrified quasi-dive, a snug brick box with tall windows on three sides surrounding a horseshoe lunch counter/bar. It concentrates on Southern-flavored diner fare, especially at breakfast: grits, hash, biscuits and gravy, pulled pork (among other things, the delicious stuffing for a burrito-sized omelet) and $3.50 “beermosas”— beer and OJ. The entire interior and all the furnishings… More >>

• Best Milkshake

  Luna Park Cafe

  Is there anything better than slurping a gigantic milkshake while listening to Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel?” I don’t think so. At a certain level, milkshakes are all about nostalgia, especially if you’re an adult, making you think of dime stores, ponytails, and jukeboxes. At Luna Park Cafe, there actually are jukeboxes, offering all the old hits. As for the milkshakes… More >>

• Best Clutter

  Icon Grill

  I love industrial-chic restaurant design. I love converted garages, concrete, exposed girders, and black napkins on blond-wood tables adorned with a single Gerber daisy in a bud vase. But I also love clutter, and Icon Grill makes me giddy with its over-the-top-ness. I love the jumble of cabinets and framed mirrors behind the bar; the School-of-Chihuly seaforms stuffed into wire… More >>

• Best Ice-Cream Parlor

  Mora

  Yes, there are fine ice-cream parlors in Seattle proper, offering premium ingredients and exotic flavors. So why go all the way to Bainbridge Island? For one thing, it’s a perfect excuse to take a ferry ride on a lovely day. If you’re trying to get someone out of the house, try this: “Let’s go to Mora!” The ice cream—of which… More >>

• Best Use of Worst Cheese

  Castelmagno

  The first time Ballard’s Staple & Fancy offered a pasta dish with Castelmagno cheese on the menu, someone sent it back. “I could make this thing at home,” said the customer, according to chef/owner Ethan Stowell. “Umm, sorry, you couldn’t,” says Stowell today. Castelmagno, which originates in the Piedmont region of Italy, is actually pretty hard to get. “Nobody in… More >>

• Best Restaurant for a First Date

  La Rustica

  If one were to Weird Science a slew of optimal first-date characteristics into one restaurant, West Seattle’s cozy La Rustica would be it. Let’s start with the style of cuisine: Italian, perhaps the most agreeable of them all. There’s an endless supply of free, hot focaccia that will come to your table for that portion of the date when you… More >>

• Best Bagels

  Eltana

  Seattle’s proud-yet-stagnant bagel scene has needed a good kick in the rump for some time now, and it got one this past year with the debut of Eltana on Capitol Hill. The first thing you notice upon entering is the woodpile, used to cook the bagels, which are laboriously fashioned by hand. Near the woodpile is a gigantic oven with… More >>

• Best Steakhouse

  Jak's Grill

  If the measure of a steakhouse can be taken from one item, that item is the porterhouse. And while it won’t surprise you that the porterhouse at Jak’s Grill is a lot cheaper than the one served at Metropolitan Grill, it might surprise you that it’s a lot better. Hence, not only does Jak’s offer the best bang for one’s… More >>

• Best Fast Food

  Mike's Chili Parlor

  As a chili parlor, it's very rare that Mike's doesn't have a pot of it on at all hours. Ordering a bowl, then, is a blindingly quick proposition: However long it takes the bartender to locate a ladle, stick it in the vat, and scoop Mike's singularly unique blend of meat and beans into your bowl is how long it'll… More >>

• Best Cheesesteak

  Jules Maes'

  Nobody who walks into Jules Maes’ spacious, vintage, saloon-like interior—or into any bar on the West Coast, for that matter—is going to expect to encounter a sandwich worthy of being pitted against Philadelphia’s finest. The key to their Georgetown Cheesesteak is the caliber and preparation of the meat. Most cheesesteaks contain meat shaved thin enough to resemble Steak-Umms. Granted, that’s… More >>

• Best Takeout Counter (Grocery)

  Super Deli Mart

  From the outside, Super Deli Mart looks like what it is: a former 7-Eleven. From the inside, it’s like no other convenience store in the city. There are a couple aisles of toiletries and economy-sized edibles, sure, but the vast majority of the floor space is devoted to beer and wine. Not just any beer and wine, but really good… More >>

• Best Dessert

  The Confectional

  If you can make it past Pike Place Market’s swarms of tourists with Canon Rebels dangling from their necks and knee-high Hanes socks, your reward is a breathtaking dose of chocolate waiting for you at The Confectional. The piece of heaven that is their Quadruple Chocolate Cheesecake comes in a small package, but is dense with every bit of chocolaty… More >>